Interactive voice response system and method with common interface and intelligent agent monitoring

ABSTRACT

A modular interactive voice recognition (“IVR”) overlay system and a method of processing calls. The system provides an application server, a plurality of agent workstations and a graphical user interface (“GUI”) to allow a hybrid approach to processing calls using an automated IVR and live agents. The system and method allow a single agent to process multiple calls simultaneously and is compatible with existing IVR systems and can be implemented as an add-on to existing IVR systems.

CROSS REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/056,992, filed May 29, 2008, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to telephone call-centers.Specifically, the present invention relates to an interactive system andmethod to provide accurate, efficient, and cost-effective processing ofcalls received at a telephone call-center.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Telephone call-centers are widely used in nearly all industries. Thesecall-centers typically provide some form of customer service. Thecustomer service being provided may include technical support, takingand processing orders, processing reservations, confirming the status ofa product, etc. Although call-centers can be effective in providingcustomer service, there is a tension between providing effectivecall-center based service and the associated costs. Live agentsgenerally provide the most accurate and comprehensive service tocallers, however, staffing a sufficient number of live agents to handlea high-volume of calls can be cost-prohibitive. Therefore, in order tohandle a high volume of calls and avoid the costs associated with havinga sufficient number of live agents, many companies have supplemented, orreplaced, live agents with automated interactive voice response (“IVR”)applications or systems.

IVR systems may use a speech recognition engine, a voice synthesizerengine, and a computing device running voice extensible markup language(“VXML”) browser and scripts. The typical IVR systems can be effectivein handling calls that are limited to simple dialogue. These callsinclude calls where a caller's utterances are generally contained withina clearly defined set of possible utterances. Examples of such callsinclude calls where the questions require either a “yes” or “no” answer,or calls that request information that is exclusively numerical, etc.IVR systems have proven ineffective at handling more complex calldialogues where a caller's utterance is not necessarily contained withina clearly defined set of utterances. Calls that ask open-endedquestions, or require more detailed and unique information such as amailing address, an electronic mail (“email”) address, or even acaller's name can be difficult for current IVR systems to processaccurately and efficiently. In these situations, existing IVR systemsoften misunderstand the caller's utterances. This generally results inwasted time, and the call being routed to a live agent for properhandling, raising costs for call processing and increasing wait timesand frustration levels for callers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a modular IVR overlay system thatincludes a real-time interactive system and method for the automatedprocessing of telephone calls received at a call-center. In an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, the modular IVR overlay systemincludes an application server, a plurality of agent workstations, and agraphical user interface (“GUI”). The modular IVR overlay system isdesigned to be compatible with existing IVR systems, and may be deployedwith IVR systems already in use. The modular IVR overlay system isconfigured to allow a hybrid approach to processing calls, where thefunctionality of the IVR is supplemented with commands from live agentswho are able to listen to the utterances spoken by a caller. This hybridapproach increases the efficiency, effectiveness and accuracy ofprocessing calls. Furthermore, since each agent is able to handlemultiple calls simultaneously, or more calls in less time, it eliminatesthe costs associated with having a large number of dedicated live agentsavailable to process every call. Moreover, the modular IVR overlaysystem can be deployed with virtually any IVR system that may already bein use, and the use of the modular IVR overlay system is transparent tocallers, and operates seamlessly with existing IVR systems to provideaccurate, efficient, cost-effective processing of calls.

An exemplary embodiment of a method of processing calls according to thepresent invention includes a hybrid approach of utilizing an IVR systemand live agents for efficient and accurate processing of calls. When acall is received at a call-center, the IVR will operate as programmed,prompting the caller for certain information. As the caller responds toeach prompt with an utterance, the IVR generates call-data associatedwith each utterance given by the caller. The call-data includes arecording of the utterance, a computer generated estimate of theutterance in text form, and a calculated confidence score that isassociated with the utterance and the estimate. This call-data istransmitted to an application server, which forwards the call-data to aworkstation of a live agent. Fields of a graphical user interface(“GUI”) at agent workstations are populated with the call-dataassociated with each call being processed, allowing an agent to takeactions in response to the call-data displayed by the GUI. Based on thecollected call-data, the agent has the options of replaying the recordedutterance of the caller, correcting the estimate, confirming theestimate, prompting the caller to repeat the utterance, or conducting alive interaction with the caller.

An aspect of the present invention also includes a method for groupingcaller utterances in an application-specific manner based on the type ofcall being processed. The information collected by the IVR system andused to populate the GUI are grouped in a manner to allow efficientprocessing of the information by an agent.

Another aspect of an embodiment of the present invention includes an“Autocue” feature. The Autocue feature prioritizes the calls and theutterance of callers and populates each of the GUIs running on the agentworkstations. This allows agents to respond to calls with the highestpriority first, and take actions associated with calls in an order ofdecreasing priority.

These and other aspects, features, steps and advantages can be furtherappreciated from the accompanying figures and description of certainillustrative embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The present invention will be more readily understood from the detaileddescription of exemplary embodiments presented below considered inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary embodiment of an IVR systemwith the modular IVR overlay system in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating steps of a call beingprocessed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating steps that may beimplemented in processing call-data associated with a call beingprocessed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a first exemplary screenshot of a GUIpresented on an agent workstation in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 5 is an illustration of another exemplary screenshot of a GUIpresented on an agent workstation in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 6 is an illustration of another exemplary screenshot of a GUIpresented on an agent workstation in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 7 is an illustration of another exemplary screenshot of a GUIpresented on an agent workstation in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 8 is an illustration of another exemplary screenshot of a GUIpresented on an agent workstation in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 9 is an exemplary flow diagram illustrating steps in changing anagent's status in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a modular IVR overlay system tosupplement an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system for theprocessing of calls, and a method for processing calls using the modularIVR system in conjunction with an IVR system.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a system 100that may be used at call-centers for the processing of calls. The system100 may include a typical IVR system 110 integrated with a modular IVRoverlay system 140 according to an embodiment of the present invention.The system 100 may receive a call from a caller on a phone 112 or 114.The call may be connected to the IVR system 110 at the call-centerthrough a telephone carrier's switching network or some other type ofnetwork infrastructure represented by the communications connections 116and 118. The IVR system 110 may include a server 120 running variousapplications such as a voice extensible markup language (“VXML”)browser, a voice synthesizer software application, and a voicerecognition software application. The IVR system 110 may also include adatabase 122 to store voice data so that voice recognition can beperformed by the IVR system 110.

To supplement the IVR system 110, the modular IVR overlay system 140 isdeployed with the IVR system 110. The deployment of the IVR overlaysystem 140 may involve a local or remote connection to the IVR system110. This connection may be made through virtually any type of networkconnection, including an Ethernet connection, a T1 connection, awireless connection, fiber optics, the Internet, wide area network,(“WAN”), local area network (“LAN”), etc. The modular IVR overlay system140 includes an application server 142 and a plurality of agentworkstations 144, 146 and 148. Although the embodiment illustrated inFIG. 1 only shows a single application server and three agentworkstations, different implementations of modular IVR overlay system140 may have various designs and configurations. The variousconfigurations may vary the number of application servers and agentworkstations, their locations and connections. The agent workstations144, 146, and 148 are networked to the application server 142. Thenetwork connection may be made via virtually any type of networkconnection including an Ethernet connection, a T1 connection, a wirelessconnection, fiber optics, the Internet, wide area network, (“WAN”),local area network (“LAN”), etc. The modular IVR overlay system 140 alsoincludes a graphical user interface (“GUI”) application (not shown)running at each of the agent workstations. The GUI presents call-dataassociated with calls to live agents, and receives commands from thelive agents to efficiently and accurately process calls.

During operation of the system 100, the IVR system 110 performs itsregular functions of prompting callers for information and receiving theutterances spoken by the callers in response. As a caller is speakingutterances in response to the prompts, the IVR system 110 generatescall-data associated with each utterance, including a recording of theutterance, a computer generated estimate of the utterance, and aconfidence score associated with the estimate. This call-data may bestored on the server 120. As this call-data is being gathered by the IVRsystem 110, the application server of the modular IVR overlay system 140uses “hooks” to request the call-data. The hooks may include standalonesoftware applications or software scripts that run in a browser, and mayreside on the application server 142. Further, the application server142 includes an agent messaging system (not shown) that determines theallocation of calls among the agent workstations 144, 146 and 148, andtransmits the call-data to the corresponding workstation. The call-datais presented to an agent at the assigned workstation via the GUI. Afteranalyzing the call-data presented by the GUI, the agent can take actionsto correct or confirm the call-data associated with the utterance,instruct the IVR system 110 to re-prompt the caller for the informationvia the application server 142, or transfer the caller to a live agent.The system can present all of the call-data associated with a singlecall to a single agent. Alternatively, the system can present distributethe call-data from a single call to multiple agents so that no one agentis presented all the call-data associated with a single call. This isuseful for applications such as the reset of passwords where it may beundesirable for a single agent to see all of a caller's sensitive data.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flow diagram of a call-flow 200 being processedby an IVR system with a modular IVR overlay system according to anembodiment of the present invention. The elements of FIG. 2 will bedescribed with reference to the elements and features of the system 100depicted in FIG. 1, and an embodiment where all the call-data associatedwith a single call is processed by a single agent. However, thecall-flow 200 of FIG. 2 is not confined to the system 100 as shown inFIG. 1, or the embodiment where a single agent processes all thecall-data associated with a single call, but is representative of acall-flow of a call being processed by an implementation of a modularIVR overlay system with an IVR system according to the presentinvention. Accordingly, alternative embodiments in accordance with thepresent invention where the call-data associated with a single call isdistributed among multiple agents may be implemented.

In the call-flow 200, the prompts 202, 204, 206, 208, 210, and 212 areexemplary prompts that the IVR system 110 may present to a caller inacquiring information from the caller in order to process a call. Inresponse to each of the prompts, the caller may speak an utterance toanswer each prompt. The “VR hooks” 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, and 224 mayinclude software applications or scripts utilized at the applicationserver 142 of the modular IVR overlay system 140 to request and receivecall-data that is generated by the IVR system 110 for each utterance.The call-data for each utterance is illustrated as the call-data blocks226, 228, 230, 232, 234, and 236. Each of the call-data 226-236generated by the IVR system 110 includes a recording of the utterance,an estimate of the utterance in text form, and a confidence scoreassociated with the respective utterance. The hooks 214-224 enable thecall-data 226-236 associated with each utterance to be transmitted tothe application server 142 of the modular IVR overlay system 140.

At the application server 142, the call-data 226-236 can be saved in adatabase 244. The call-data 226-236 is then forwarded to an agentmessaging system 240 that assigns the call to a specific agent, andtransmits one or more of the call-data 226-236 to the workstation 242 ofthe assigned agent. The workstation 242 may be any of the agentworkstations 144-148 in the system 100 of FIG. 1. In selecting aspecific agent to process any of the call-data 226-236, the agentmessaging system 240 implements an algorithm to generate a priorityscore for each available agent. First, the agent messaging system 240determines the status of each agent (e.g., “Active,” “On Break,”“Logging out,” etc.). For each “Active” agent, a priority score isgenerated. To generate the priority score for each agent, the agentmessaging system 240 may consider various statistical informationassociated with each “Active” agent. Examples of statistical informationinclude the number of active calls, the number of failed utterances, thenumber of failed utterances in a wait-state, a ratio of completedutterances to total number of utterances, agent response times, callerhold times, and caller satisfaction indicators. These data points canthen be combined as a weighted average to calculate the priority score.The priority scores can be used to determine which agent will beassigned a call as it is received in real-time, or an ordered priorityqueue listing all the available agents can be constructed andcontinuously updated periodically.

After an agent has been selected, the call-data 226-236 is transmittedto the agent workstation 242 and may populate a GUI (not shown) at theagent workstation 242. In an exemplary embodiment, each call-data226-236 associated with a specific utterance may populate differentfields of the GUI. In addition to presenting the call-data 226-236 tothe agent on the agent workstation 242, the GUI is configured so thatthe assigned agent is able to take certain actions for any of thecall-data 226-236. The agent is able to see the confidence scoreassociated with the utterance, listen to the recorded utterance, and seethe estimate generated by the IVR system 110. Based on the actions theagent opts to take for each call-data 226-236, the agent may correct theestimate if necessary, confirm that the estimate is correct, instructthe IVR system 110 to re-prompt the caller for the specific utterance,or instruct the IVR system 110 to transfer the call to a live agent. Theaction taken by the agent is transferred back to the application server142.

The agent action regarding the call-data 226-236 is used to instruct theIVR system 110 how to proceed in the call-flow 200. If the agent hasconfirmed and/or corrected all the estimates included in each of thecall-data 226-236, the IVR system 110 may confirm the utterances withthe caller as shown in block 248, and complete the call. However, if thecaller does not confirm the utterances presented in block 248, thecaller may be prompted to state the mistake, generating a call-data 250for the utterance stating the mistake. The call-data 250 is transmittedto the application server 142, and the process is repeated.Additionally, if the utterances are unconfirmed in step 248, the IVRsystem 110 and the application 142 may be notified that the call isplaced on hold, and indicate that the call-data 250 is urgent.

In a situation where the agent is not able to correct or confirm theestimate of a specific call-data for a specific utterance, the agent caninstruct the IVR system 110 to re-prompt the caller for the specificutterance. The IVR system 110 will re-prompt the caller as shown witharrow 246. Although arrow 246 is depicted re-prompting the caller forthe prompt 202, this is merely exemplary, and the caller may bere-prompted for any of the prompts 202-212. Furthermore, the re-promptcan be executed so that the caller is only required to repeat the oneutterance for the specific prompt and not all the prompts in thecall-flow 200. After the caller has been re-prompted and the utteranceis received by the IVR system 110, the process is repeated for thecall-data generated for the re-prompted utterance.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram of a method 300 illustrating theprocessing of an individual utterance stored as call-data beingprocessed by an IVR system with a modular IVR overlay system accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 will be described withreference to the elements and features of the system 100 and thecall-flow 200 depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2. However, the method 300 of FIG.3 is not limited to the system 100 and call-flow 200 as shown in FIGS. 1and 2, and is only representative of call-data being processed by anexemplary implementation of a modular IVR overlay system with an IVRsystem according to the present invention. During step 305, thecall-data is received by the IVR overlay system 140. The call-data issaved in the IVR overlay system database 142 during step 310. Duringstep 315, the agent messaging system 240 determines which agent toassign the call-data. The call-data is then transmitted to the assignedagent's workstation, and populates a GUI at the agent's workstationduring steps 320 and 325. During steps 330 and 335, the agent analyzesthe call-data by evaluating the confidence score, the estimate andlistening to the recording of the utterance. Based on the assessment ofthe call-data, it is determined during step 340 whether the generatedestimate is correct. If the estimate is correct, it is confirmed andsaved during step 345. However, if the estimate is incorrect, the agentdetermines whether or not it can be corrected based on the recording. Ifa determination can be made, the agent edits the estimate to accuratelyreflect the utterance of the caller during step 355, and proceeds tosave and confirm the edited estimate. If the agent cannot make adetermination, the agent considers whether the call should betransferred to a live agent during decision block 360. Thisdetermination may be based on, for example, the complexity of theinformation requested, the complexity of the reason for the call, thequality of the call and/or recording, availability of live agents, etc.Based on this determination, the call is either transferred to a liveagent during step 365, or the agent instructs the IVR system 110 tore-prompt the caller for the information during step 370.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary screen shot of a graphical user interface (“GUI”)400 that is configured to display call-data and receive agent commandson agent workstations. The elements of FIG. 4 will be described withreference to the elements and features of system 100 depicted in FIG. 1,the call-flow 200 of FIG. 2 and method 300 of FIG. 3. However, the GUI400 of FIG. 400 is not limited to the descriptions used in reference toFIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and may be representative of a GUI according to anyimplementation of a modular IVR overlay system with an IVR systemaccording to the present invention. The GUI 400 may be a browser-basedscript as shown in FIG. 4, or a separate stand alone softwareapplication. The GUI 400 may include several session tabs 402, 404, 406,and 408, where each session tab corresponds to a different call.

The agent workstation 242 receives the call-data 226-236 from the agentmessaging system 240. The call-data 226-236 populates fields 420, 422,424, 426, 428, 430, 432, 434, and 436 associated with the callcorresponding to session tab 406. Each field 420-436 may be populatedwith call-data associated with a single utterance, and may include anentry 446 containing the estimate generated by the IVR system 110.Further, the call-data associated with each utterance populates the GUI400 in a logical application-specific manner based on the type of callbeing processed for efficient processing of the call. Examples of suchgroupings include: name and address; various call-data associated withcredit card information (e.g., credit card number, expiration date,etc.); various call-data associated with account information (e.g.,account number, social security number, etc.); various call-dataassociated with employee information (e.g., employee identification,date of birth, social security number, etc.); and various call-dataassociated with date information (e.g., month, day, year, etc.).

Furthermore, the GUI 400 may also include audio buttons 444 that allowthe agent to listen to the recorded utterance included in the call-data226-236. The GUI 400 may further include a status indicator 442, thatmay be based on the confidence score contained in the call-data 226-236.The GUI 400 may also include action buttons 450 that allow the agent totake actions in response to the call-data for each utterance. The agentcan confirm the estimate is correct or enter a corrected utterance in aform 448. Alternatively, the agent can instruct the IVR system 110 tore-prompt the caller for the specific utterance, or transfer the call toa live agent.

In addition to the features of the GUI 400 that allow the agents toprocess the calls and the call-data, the GUI 400 may also include“Sign-off,” and “Break” functions, as shown in FIGS. 5-9. FIGS. 5-8 showvarious screen shots of an implementation of the GUI 400 showing thestatus of the agent. FIG. 5 shows the status of an agent in thesigning-off process. FIG. 6 shows the status of an agent who is in theprocess of going on break. FIG. 7 shows the status of an agent who is onbreak. FIG. 8 shows the status of an agent who is active. Further, FIG.9 shows an exemplary flow diagram of a method 900 illustrating the stepsthat may be implemented in executing a “Sign-off” or “Break” requestaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

The “Sign-off” and “Break” features of the GUI 400 work in conjunctionwith the agent messaging system 240 and the method 200. An agent canactivate the “Sign-off” or “Break” feature via the GUI 400 as shown insteps 905 and 910. Next, the agent's status will be changed to “Loggingoff” or “Pausing”, respectively, as shown in steps 915 and 920. Thisensures that the agent messaging system 240 is aware that the agent iseither going on break or in the process of signing off, and will notdirect any more calls to the agent during steps 925 and 930. After allof the agent's calls have been processed, the agent's status is changedto unavailable or “On break” during steps 965 and 970. Optionally, asshown in decision blocks 935 and 940 and step 975, the agent messagingsystem 240 can pull calls already assigned to an agent workstation froman agent in the process of logging out or going on break to expeditethis process, and re-assign the calls to “Active” agents.

Further, the GUI 400 may include an AutoCue feature (not shown). TheAutocue feature of the GUI 400 prioritizes to ensure that the calls orutterances with the highest priority are processed efficiently andeffectively. AutoCue enables the agent to work passively, allowing theagent to wait for the GUI to prioritize the work flow and present theagent with the next utterance to be processed. In an exemplaryembodiment in accordance with the present invention, the AutoCue featureanalyzes all of the currently active call-data blocks currently in eachagent's queue to determine the age of each of the blocks. Based on thisinformation, the AutoCue feature generates a queue so that the oldercalls are given a higher priority. The active call-data blocks are thenarranged according to the queue so that the older, and thus higherpriority calls, are processed first. Other factors that may beconsidered in prioritizing the calls is the importance of each call, andan estimated time that is required to complete processing of the call.This feature reduces wait times that callers may experience, and alsoprocessing times associated with calls.

To further assist the agent, the AutoCue feature may optimize theconfiguration of the GUI screen presented to the agent for eachutterance that is prioritized according to the AutoCue that is beingprocessed by the agent. In an exemplary embodiment, a “First Name” fieldincluded in the GUI may be highlighted and selected as the utterance isbeing played for the agent. This may allow the agent to immediately editthe field without first selecting the field via a keystroke or a clickwith a computer mouse. Additionally, after the agent completesprocessing an utterance prioritized by the AutoCue feature, the AutoCuefeature may select and prepare the utterance with the next highestpriority in a similar manner to allow seamless processing of theprioritized list of utterances by the agent. Thus, the AutoCue featureallows the agent to focus on utterances in an order of decreasingpriorities.

Additionally, call-data that has been confirmed by a caller or enteredby an agent may be stored to optimize the voice-recognition capabilitiesof the IVR. The stored data may include the call-data, including anutterance and an accurate interpretation of the utterance. This data maybe compiled and archived and may be accessed by the IVR to improve andexpand the speech recognition capabilities of the IVR.

Thus, while there have been shown, described, and pointed outfundamental novel features of the invention as applied to severalembodiments, it will be understood that various omissions,substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the illustratedembodiments, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in theart without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Substitutions of elements from one embodiment to another are also fullyintended and contemplated. The invention is defined solely with regardto the claims appended hereto, and equivalents of the recitationstherein.

We claim:
 1. A method for interactively processing calls in conjunctionwith an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system, comprising the stepsof: providing at least one item of call-data associated with arespective one of a plurality of calls being processed by the IVR;assigning at least one of the plurality of call-data to one of aplurality of agent workstations; transmitting the at least one call-datato the assigned agent workstation; prioritizing the call-data presentedto the agent; arranging the call-data in an order of decreasingpriority; presenting the at least one call-data at the assigned agentworkstation via a graphical user interface (“GUI”); playing an audioutterance associated with the call-data with highest priority that hasnot already been processed; receiving at least one of a plurality ofagent commands through the GUI; and processing the at least onecall-data based on at least one of the call-data provided by the IVR andthe agent commands received from the GUI.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the step of prioritizing is based on at least one of a period oftime the call with which the call-data is associated has been on hold,an importance of the call with which the call-data is associated, and anestimated period of time the call with which the call-data is associatedwill take to process.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising thestep of: optimally configuring the GUI according to the audio utterancebeing played.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:using the IVR to playback the at least one call-data; using the IVR torequest instructions for correcting at least one error in the at leastone call-data; receiving instructions for correcting the error;presenting the at least one call-data to the agent; presenting theinstructions for correcting the error; and enabling the agent to correctthe call-data based on at least one of the instructions and thecall-data while the system is still connected to the call.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein the step of assigning of the call-data furthercomprises assigning the call-data associated with a call to more thanone agent.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:tracking a performance of at least one of the plurality of agents basedon at least one of a number of calls actively monitored by the agent, anumber of utterances in the agent's cue, a number of failed utterances,a number of failed utterances in a wait-state, a ratio of completedutterances to total number of utterances, an agent response time, a callhold time, and a call satisfaction indicator.
 7. The method of claim 6,further comprising the steps of: deriving a priority score for the agentfrom the tracked performance; prioritizing the agent based on thepriority score; arranging the agent in an order of decreasing priority;and assigning call-data to the agent based on the order of decreasingpriority.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:storing call-data and the agent commands associated with the call-data;and updating the IVR with the call-data and the associated agentcommands; wherein the updated IVR program can access the storedcall-data and associated agent commands for improved processing ofcalls.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:automatically updating the IVR program with the call-data and theassociated agent commands.
 10. A modular interactive voice response(“IVR”) overlay configured to integrate with an IVR system, comprising:an application server configured to request at least one call-data fromthe IVR system and allocate the at least one call-data to at least oneagent workstation, the at least one agent workstation being networkedwith the application server, wherein the application server is furtherconfigured to prioritize the at least one call-data allocated to the atleast one agent station, to arrange the at least one call-data in anorder of decreasing priority, and to present the at least one call-dataat a graphical user interface (“GUI”) of the at least one agentworkstation, wherein the GUI is configured to present the at least onecall data and allow at least one of a processing and a manipulation ofthe at least one call-data; and wherein the GUI is further configured toreceive agent commands including at least one agent command for playingan audio utterance of the at least one call data with the highestpriority that has not been processed, and wherein the application serveris further configured to process the at least one call-data based on theagent commands received from the GUI.
 11. The modular IVR overlay ofclaim 10, wherein the modular IVR overlay is networked with the IVRsystem.
 12. The modular IVR overlay of claim 10, wherein the processingand manipulation of the at least one call-data is performed via theplurality of user selectable commands.
 13. The modular IVR overlay ofclaim 10, wherein the allocation is based on a prioritization of the atleast one call-data.
 14. A programmed processor configured to processcalls in conjunction with an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system,the processor configured to: provide at least one item of call-dataassociated with a respective one of a plurality of calls being processedby the IVR; assign at least one of the plurality of call-data to one ofa plurality of agent workstations; transmit the at least one call-datato the assigned agent workstation; prioritize the call-data presented tothe agent; arrange the call-data in an order of decreasing priority;present the at least one call-data at the assigned agent workstation viaa graphical user interface (“GUI”); play an audio utterance associatedwith the call-data with highest priority that has not already beenprocessed; receive at least one of a plurality of agent commands throughthe GUI; and process the at least one call-data based on at least one ofthe call-data provided by the IVR and the agent commands received fromthe GUI.